Manager Pool, The: Patterns for Radical Leadership

The Manager Pool captures corporate software development folklore and "in-the-trenches" experience -- and neatly packages it in patterns that managers will find accessible, insightful, and actionable. It offers practical solutions to the most widespread moral, ethical, and behavioral challenges of software development. It addresses the issues that regularly sink projects and break people; issues that are not addressed by the vast pile of methodology books now in the marketplace. Following the classic "design patterns" format, each management pattern is introduced clearly and simply, along with a discussion of the forces, context, and issues impacting it -- and proven solutions. The book begins with psychological patterns describing the "states-of-mind" of developers and their managers, and offering insight into behavior that might otherwise be incomprehensible. It introduces strategic patterns such as "Get a Guru" and "Secret Stash," which offer potential large-scale solutions; as well as tactical patterns such as "Enough Rope" and "Cargo Cult," designed to solve immediate problems. For all project managers, technical managers, developers, and anyone concerned with the human aspects of software development.